Saturday, October 13, 2007

Now You See It

As I've mentioned before, one aspect of baseball that astonishes me is watching low probability events happen on an everyday basis. For example, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz reached base ten consecutive appearance last night. If you view each at bat as a random event (may or may not be), and have an expectation of reaching base at 40 percent (.04), then you're looking at about a one in 10,000 chance of two players getting on ten consecutive times. You'd have to watch about sixty consecutive seasons of Red Sox games to see that.

Last night's announcers mentioned that Javier Lopez has a higher success rate against right-handed batters than left-handed ones. I wouldn't have guessed that...of course, Casey Blake then promptly deposited his second two-bagger into the left field corner.

I saw some fans who showed up wearing windbreakers. Maybe they had neoprene wet suits underneath, but it looked pretty cold out there last night.

Does Jason Varitek get enough credit for what he does? Last year Josh Beckett tried to overpower people, now he's trusting Varitek, willing to trick them, too. Props to him.

Travis Hafner scares me.

Tim McCarver and Joe Buck scare me, too. First, they mention that Beckett has thrown six consecutive curveballs to Gutierrez, the pitch immediately following an inside fastball. Then they mention that Tribe skipper Eric Wedge has visited 'Strike One' a batting cage a mile away from Fenway. Last time I checked, the Danvers 40,000 square foot multipurpose facility was a heckuva long walk from Fenway. The Truth Squad cries foul bawl on the Fox jock and sidekick.

Despite the criticism of the Fox broadcasters, I acknowledge that they are much easier to take without having the Yankees the opposition, with McCarver the Yankee shill that he is. I still always want to call Joe Buck, Jack, thinking back to his father, which really defines my age.

Mike Lowell looked pretty indispensable last night, with his key hit to the opposite field. And the baseball gods blessed Bobby Kielty and Terry Francona as Kielty's single knocked out C.C. Sabathia. What am I grateful for? That C.C. isn't playing defensive end for the Cowboys this Sunday. Wow, he's one large dude. Thank goodness the Indians' lefty got his glove up to snatch Dustin Pedroia's liner up the middle...

Next the announcing duo was hyping the A-Rod relocation possibilities to Fenway (cut to owner John Henry). I agree with them that only a few suitors can compete for 'The Winner's Curse' and here's rooting for A-Rod to wind up in Chicago, in the National League.

J.D. Drew made a pretty good play on a Grady Sizemore drive down by the Pesky Pole. Let's hope that he doesn't have a sore back for the next two weeks from hitting the wall.